BIG STORY – Chronic budget deficit, appeal to the IMF to “make ends meet”, inflation at 15%: the state of the French economy and public accounts seemed hopeless on the eve of the General’s return to power. He would achieve, in his own words, a “miracle”.
The Algerian War was not the only reason that led the French to accept de Gaulle’s return to power in 1958. At the time, the country was facing a very serious economic, financial and monetary situation, which the Fourth Republic was unable to resolve. This aspect of the May 1958 crisis is forgotten today, but it had an impact. When de Gaulle came to Matignon on 29 May 1958, the nation not only expected him to avoid civil war and find a solution to “the Algerian question”, but also to clean up the economy and public accounts. The founder of the Fifth Republice The Republic will succeed by means of shock therapy. And people will soon stop saying, as they said at the time, that France is the sick man of Europe.
“We are on the brink of disaster in all areas at once”wrote de Gaulle about the state of the French economy when he returned to power in 1958. In many ways, the man of June 18 was not exaggerating…
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